Rashford belittled at Barcelona as Roma star obstructs £26m Man Utd move | OneFootball

While Barcelona refusing to meet Manchester United’s £26m demand to sign Marcus Rashford continues to perplex English football fans, who baulk at the miserly La Liga giants’ attempts to drive down that price, Catalan counterparts remain torn on the transfer as the Spanish media comes up with new, extraneous evidence to ward them against the England international’s permanent signing.

Rashford’s stunning free-kick to help Barcelona to a 2-0 win in El Clasico last weekend was his 14th goal in all competitions, to go with 14 assists this season.

“I’m not a magician, but if I was, I would stay [at Barcelona],” the 28-year-old said after the game. “We will see. I came here to win.

“This is a wonderful team, they’re going to win so much in the future; to be a part of that would be special.”

Manager Hansi Flick hailed Rashford’s “fantastic” season but remained coy on his future.

“As for me, I appreciate Rashford that very much. I think his season was fantastic. He has good numbers, and I am very grateful that and appreciate it greatly.

“At the end of the season, we will analyse everything, and then we will see what will happen.”

For us Premier League-centric souls, who could barely imagine a forward putting up those sorts of numbers for a big club at that price, any analysis that doesn’t start and end with ‘£26m is a p*ssing bargain’  makes very little sense.

It’s now claimed that Manchester United and Barcelona are ‘set to reopen negotiations next week in the hope of constructing a deal’.

That report also suggested ‘another loan deal is a possibility’ though that’s since been refuted by our friends over at TEAMtalk as United are quite rightly of a mind to tell Barcelona to do one and sell Rashford to another willing suitor – maybe Bayern Munich or Arsenal; very possibly for more than £26m.

Whether fair or not – and his goal against Real Madrid provides a significant niggle in this particular argument – there is a sense among Barcelona fans and avid La Liga viewers in general that Rashford hasn’t done it in the big moments; that he’s something of a flat-track bully compared to his competition for a place in the team.

But he was never going to usurp either Raphinha or Lamine Yamal. He will have known that the best case scenario would be him becoming the first-choice backup, able to get enough game time to make an impact through rotation and injuries.

That’s precisely what’s happened and Barcelona will be hard pushed to find any winger superior to Rashford who’s going to be happy to play second fiddle, let alone one who’s available at that price.

It’s been suggested that Barcelona consider his €270,000-per-week wages too steep, but he’s only the seventh-highest earner and, again, are they likely to land a forward who averages a goal contribution every 90 minutes for less?

Whatabout Malen?

In search of further reasons why Barcelona shouldn’t sign Rashford, Spanish outlet MARCA have engaged in some very odd whataboutery concerning Donyell Malen, whose loan move from Aston Villa to Roma has just been made permanent for £21m. You can see where this is going.

The Dutch winger has been outstanding, revitalising the Roma attack and scoring a remarkable 14 goals in 18 games to put them right in the frame to qualify for the Champions League. They’re currently level on 67 points with fourth-placed Milan with two games to play.

The gist of the article is ‘if you think Rashford’s been so good, look what this cheaper guy has done for Roma’.

While Malen has ‘become the offensive leader of Roma’, Rashford has ‘not yet cleared all doubts’ at Barcelona, with Malen’s performances ‘holding up a mirror’ for Rashford’s to be compared to.

But it’s apples and oranges, it’s Roma and Barcelona, it’s Serie A and La Liga, it’s a key role and a bit-part role. There is a comparison to be drawn as both players sought to rebuild their careers after relative struggles in the Premier League, but that really is the only comparison.

But it speaks to this peculiar compulsion in Spain to denigrate Rashford’s achievements this season as fans and the media continue to try, in a baffling and desperate way, to convince themselves that £26m isn’t an absolute bloody bargain.